1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a layered inorganic-organic polymer, a shaped article thereof and a process for producing the same, and more particularly to a layered inorganic-organic polymer to be used as a coating material, a filler for resins, various kinds of high-performance materials, etc., a shaped article thereof in various forms, such as layered coating, produced for specific purposes by reaction and bonding of the organic portions of the polymer, and a process for producing the layered inorganic-organic polymer and shaped article thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inorganic material as a coating material, a principal component of shaped article, or a filler is usually characterized by high hardness and good heat resistance. However, it has a disadvantage of requiring calcination in the course of processing from a liquid phase or solution into a dense solid phase. Another disadvantage of such an inorganic material is a weak affinity for organic solvents and organic materials. On the ether hand, an organic material is characterized by good flexibility and sheet formability at room temperature. However, it is poor in hardness and heat resistance. For these reasons, there has been a demand for an inorganic-organic hybrid material having features of both inorganic and organic materials, with their disadvantages suppressed to a possible extreme, and also for an effective process for producing such a material under mild conditions, for example, at room temperature.
There are some technologies developed to meet such a demand. They include an inorganic-organic hybrid paint as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,122. It is a wear-resistant coating material which is composed of a reaction product of a partial hydrolyzate of epoxy-silane, a carbonyl group-containing compound, and an aliphatic polyamine (excluding silane derivatives). However, it is not remarkably superior to an organic polymer in hardness and heat resistance, because it does not permit the inorganic structure to be fully introduced into the organic polymer, nor does it permit the portion of inorganic structure to grow in the coating film on account of the organic reactions that take place at room temperature.
One of the present inventors disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 74957/1987 an ion-exchanged clay as an inorganic-organic hybrid material (an intercalation compound composed of a layered clay mineral with an organic compound sandwiched therebetween by ion exchange reaction). Though the ion-exchanged clay is exceedingly effective in achieving the purpose of that invention, it is not sufficiently suitable for the technical field to which the present invention is to be applied. The disclosed ion-exchanged clay suffers several disadvantages with ion exchange reaction, it is impossible to introduce organic compounds, such as those containing epoxy groups or terminal amino groups. Moreover, it is only possible to introduce organic compounds up to the ion exchange capacity peculiar to the clay mineral. The intercalation compound, in which a clay mineral and an organic compound are held together simply by an ionic bond, is liable to liberate the organic compound when the ion bond is broken during use.